5 Common Causes of Blocked Drains and How to Prevent Them

Posted by Melbourne Blocked Drains Plumbing on 17 Oct 2025

Blocked drains are an inconvenience which can cause a disruption in your daily life. They can lead to flooding, bad smells, or even health risks. If they are not addressed promptly, blocked drains can cause serious issues in your plumbing system, which could lead to expensive maintenance or repairs.

Key Takeaways

  • Drains that are blocked can interrupt your routine and can result in the destruction of your home, bad smells, and even health risks.
  • The fat, oil and grease build-up can clog the pipes’ walls causing blockages. Avoid pouring grease down the drain, or use hot water and soap when washing dishes.
  • Tree roots naturally extend themselves in the ground to find nutrients, which could cause serious damage to pipes and even completely block them leading to flooding; regularly maintain the trees surrounding drainage systems by pruning them.
  • Flushing non-biodegradable items like wet wipes, towels, and so on. can create unpleasant smells that can be detected around bins and toilets; just take care to wash your toilet paper in the drain.
  • Hair

In this post, we’ll review five common reasons for blocked drains and ways to stop them from happening.

Cause 1: Grease, Oil and fat buildup

Oil, grease, and fat might appear to be harmless substances to dump down the drain but over time they accumulate on the walls of the pipes causing the pipes to become blocked. In this case, water is unable to move freely through the drainpipes. The solution is to avoid the practice of pouring grease in the drain, or utilize soap and hot water while cleaning dishes since it can help break down grease-based substances.

Cause 2: Tree Roots

As time passes, tree roots naturally extend into the ground looking for nutrients. This results in them growing towards underground pipes. Once they’re inside, the tree roots can cause massive damage and may completely block them leading to flooding. It’s important therefore if you have trees in the vicinity that you regularly maintain the growth of your trees around drainage systems by trimming them on a regular basis.

Cause 3: Unwanted items

It’s easy to think that flushing non-biodegradable items like wet towels, sanitary wipes and so on. won’t cause any significant problems in the end, however, if too many of these items are flushed in toilets, they’ll build up, pushing other items aside and which can cause unpleasant odors to emanate around the toilets and bins too! Make sure to remember what should be flushed away and what should not (i. the only toilet paper should be flushed away).

Cause 4 Cause 4: Hair

Additional Information

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Are you experiencing a clogged toilet, blocked shower drain, overflowing drains or an issue with your kitchen sink? We can help you sort out your drain blockage problem quickly and provide the following services:

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Clearing blocked drains can be difficult and it’s best to get a professional plumbing service involved to tackle it for you, To get your blocked drain in Melbourne cleared today, contact Melbourne Blocked Drains Plumbing now and speak to one of our friendly team members.

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We’re here to help with all of your plumbing needs, such as blocked drains, CCTV drain inspections, drain repairs and pipe relining.

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